A year after the deadly attack
on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama's pledge
to bring the perpetrators to justice has yet to be fulfilled. Numerous
people who participated in the assault have been identified, and some
sealed indictments have been issued. But, as The Post's Karen DeYoung
reported, no one has been taken into custody, and authorities still
haven't clarified who plotted the attack and whether it was timed for
Sept. 11 or carried out in response to anti-American protests that day
in Cairo.
That's an understandable cause of frustration for
Republicans in Congress as well as some military and law enforcement
officials, the New York Times reports. The fact that leading suspects in
the attack, which killed ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three
others, operate openly in Benghazi, occasionally offering interviews to
U.S. media, is particularly galling. Some wonder why the administration
does not push the Libyan government harder to take action against the
suspects or the Ansar al-Sharia militia, which joined the assault.
Others say Obama should launch a unilateral U.S. raid, like that which
killed Osama bin Laden.
In fact, there are good reasons for prudence. Setting
aside the reality that Obama already has placed U.S. forces on alert for
possible action in Syria, an American action in Libya could have a high
political cost, even if it succeeded. The Libyan government and much of the population views the
United States favorably because of its help in overthrowing dictator
Moammar Gadhafi; a strike could squander that rare goodwill in an Arab
state. It could also further destablize a moderate regime that already
is struggling to keep the country's economy functioning and complete the
construction of a new democratic political system.
Libya's government doesn't act against Ansar al-Sharia
or arrest terrorist suspects because it can't. Two years after the
overthrow of the Gadhafi regime, the country is still mostly controlled
by a patchwork of militias that organized during the revolution and
never disbanded. As The Post's Kevin Sullivan recently reported, some
are paid by and officially report to the government, but they don't
necessarily take its orders. For the last two months, militia members
have taken control of key oil terminals, reducing exports to 15 percent
of capacity.
What Libya needs from Washington
is not a special forces raid but much more help in building a state. In
a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry released this week, 28
experts, including former American diplomats, scholars and businessmen,
urged a more active policy that would expand beyond seeking justice for
the Benghazi attack. They urged U.S. technical support for the drafting
of a new constitution that safeguards human rights, help in developing a
long-term strategy to create an independent judiciary and training
programs for security forces.
After helping to liberate Libya, the Obama
administration and its European allies were too quick to walk away,
leaving a shattered country to find its own way. If they wish to avoid
another Arab state descending into chaos, they need to come back.
The Washington Post.
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